Frederick Douglass and Eldridge Cleaver View “No Child Left Behind”~~
By: Kathie Thompson
Frederick Douglass was born into American slavery in 1817 and declared, “on the third day of September, 1838, I left my chains” when he arrived in the free state of New York (112). Eldridge Cleaver was born a free man, but was imprisoned on June 18, 1954 (21). He was eighteen years old. He escaped the slavery of prison within his mind when he began reading every book he could get from the prison library. He gradually began writing and published Soul On Ice in 1968 after his release. Frederick Douglass learned to read and write during a time when it was illegal for slaves to do so. He also published a slave narrative of his life in 1845. Both men possessed a desire to read and learn, to improve their lives by acquiring knowledge through reading and education. There was a time lapse of one hundred and twenty-three years between their two narratives. A few wars had occurred and slavery had become illegal, but Black Americans were and continue to be enslaved by the lack of a good education which is perpetrated by the domestic policy of “No Child Left Behind.” Slavery, in a looser sense, has not truly been abolished; it just has a different look about it.
Frederick Douglass:
As a self-made man, he had a purpose for writing a book. He said, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (76). He wished to tell slaves and former slaves about self-education and escaping slavery. He wished to tell the world about the man he had become and to show the Abolitionists that he had his own voice; they did not need to speak for him. As a slave, he had many trials and nearly lost his life more than once, but he was persistent and knew he wanted his freedom. Reading and learning to write helped him forge notes so he could travel within the slave states (94).
By the time he was a free man, married and living in Boston, his reputation was one of eloquence. Many people listened to his speeches in disbelief that he had been a slave. His educated demeanor was the product of an intense desire to learn in spite of slavery. He traded bread for words from the boys in the street (52). He taught himself from readers he found in his master’s home.
Frederick soon learned that the ability to read was a real threat to the white men who enslaved him. The anger his mistress’ husband displayed upon learning of the reading lessons made young Frederick painfully aware of why he needed to learn. His master had said, “If you teach him to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave"(48). Frederick realized, “the white man’s power to enslave the black man...From that moment, I understood the pathway to freedom"(48). Education is still the way to freedom for Black youth. Due to poverty, the schools are woefully inadequate and “No Child Left Behind” does not address that problem. It compounds the problem by punishing the underachievers who are doing so because of their poverty. Eldridge Cleaver:
Eldridge was born in Arkansas in 1935, moving with his family to Phoenix and then Los Angeles where he hung around with the wrong kids who introduced him to teenage petty crime. He eventually committed more serious crimes that sent him to prison. After he went back to prison, he said, “I took a long look at myself and, for the first time in my life, admitted that I was wrong, that I had gone astray...that is why I started to write. To save myself” (34). Writing gave him an outlet and a place of personal reflection. The writing workshops in prison helped him do something constructive with his experiences. Ironically, it is the incarceration, enslavement, that provides him with books and classes to hone his writing skills. Decades later, inner city Black high school students are still being enslaved by poverty which denies their schools the proper facilities, teachers and supplies that allow learning to occur. “No Child Left Behind” also punishes their schools due to low test scores by the impoverished students. Slavery continues. No Child Left Behind (NCLB):
NCLB is a 2002 Federal law that seeks to improve adequate yearly progress (AYP) for American K-12 schools. It has been referred to as a civil rights act because it is “legislation meant to provide federal funding to eradicate the stubborn academic achievement gap between middle and upper-class white kids and the rest of American children” (Goldstein). A huge problem is its lack of funding to states to pay for the expensive testing and pay for the necessary remedial teaching. The Federal government contributes only nine cents of every one dollar spent in the schools for NCLB (Time).
School segregation is one reason why NCLB is not working and the achievement gap is widening between white and all minority students, including African-Americans. Segregated schools have never done a good job of educating children (Anderson). The curriculum and teaching staff are usually inadequate. Without good curriculum, the students cannot possibly pass the state tests that are the backbone of NCLB. Funding is tied to the Adequate Yearly Progress and without good scores, the school starts a downward spiral. After five years of underperformance, the state can restructure the school. The students can also transfer out of the school after two years of low scores. Money for teaching has to then be put into providing transportation (Time).
The Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 that “separate facilities are inherently unequal” still has not been completely resolved. African-American students are most often in impoverished schools that don’t have the money to guarantee them a quality free education. The socioeconomic status of the students dictates that they live in lower income neighborhoods where the schools are inadequate. This is a violation of their civil rights because they are supposed to have a free education.
The tests also incorporate reading and language that some students may not be familiar with because they attend a low-performing school. That is a further hindrance to their passing the tests. The tests are also a hindrance to creative learning because teachers feel they must “teach to the test” to gain funding for their school and keep their jobs. It has nothing to do with real learning and everything to do with money. Cheating on state tests has been reported recently (Time). The stakes are very high and the children are tossed aside. Solutions: A good place to begin solving the problem, if NCLB is to remain in place, is to encourage integration of schools, with the Federal government paying more money for schools and busing since it is a Federal law. Integration will go a long way in guaranteeing educational equity for all students. The benefits of an integrated education include reductions in racial prejudice and stereotyping, and preparation of students to live in an increasingly multicultural society. Academic achievement will improve for minority students and White students will stay the same.
Another solution would be to redistribute property tax money in an equitable fashion so that all schools would have equal facilities and staff. The sad state of the Oakland, CA school district is a disgrace. There is also an operating school in Indiana (mostly Black) that should be condemned and is within a short distance of a state-of-the-art school where White children attend. The problems exist because of property tax distribution from surrounding neighborhoods. It also exists because of housing segregation by race, which is also related to property taxes.
Racial segregation appears to be the main reason why the test scores are low. Underperforming schools have a higher percentage of minority children. It is a very real problem for districts to attract the best teachers to work in dilapidated schools. Children cannot take pride in a place that is falling apart. Everyone loses, everyone feels that no one cares what goes on within the walls of the school. Both Frederick Douglass and Eldridge Cleaver would be very sad to see the low morale of students who they know have a lot of potential. People helped each of them to become something, to follow their dreams. Our society owes it to our school-age youth to let them know they can also follow their dreams. Sources:
Anderson, Nick.“School Segregation Is Back With A Vengance.” washingtonpost.com 17 October 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
Cleaver, Eldridge Soul On Ice New York: Dell, 1968, 1999.
Dillon, Sam.“No Child Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap.” Nytimes.com 29 April 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/education/29scores.html
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An AmericanSlave. New York: Penguin, 2005.
Goldstein, Dana.“Segregated Schools Leave Children Behind.”19 September 2007 http://prospect.org/cs/articles
Kahlenberg, Richard D.“No Child Left Behind’s Impotence on the Achievement Gap.”The Century Foundation 21 November 2006 http://www.tcf.org/print.asp?type=NC&pubid=1446
“How To Fix No Child Left Behind.” Time 24 May 2007 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1625192,00.html
By: Kathie Thompson
Frederick Douglass was born into American slavery in 1817 and declared, “on the third day of September, 1838, I left my chains” when he arrived in the free state of New York (112). Eldridge Cleaver was born a free man, but was imprisoned on June 18, 1954 (21). He was eighteen years old. He escaped the slavery of prison within his mind when he began reading every book he could get from the prison library. He gradually began writing and published Soul On Ice in 1968 after his release. Frederick Douglass learned to read and write during a time when it was illegal for slaves to do so. He also published a slave narrative of his life in 1845. Both men possessed a desire to read and learn, to improve their lives by acquiring knowledge through reading and education. There was a time lapse of one hundred and twenty-three years between their two narratives. A few wars had occurred and slavery had become illegal, but Black Americans were and continue to be enslaved by the lack of a good education which is perpetrated by the domestic policy of “No Child Left Behind.” Slavery, in a looser sense, has not truly been abolished; it just has a different look about it.
Frederick Douglass:
As a self-made man, he had a purpose for writing a book. He said, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (76). He wished to tell slaves and former slaves about self-education and escaping slavery. He wished to tell the world about the man he had become and to show the Abolitionists that he had his own voice; they did not need to speak for him. As a slave, he had many trials and nearly lost his life more than once, but he was persistent and knew he wanted his freedom. Reading and learning to write helped him forge notes so he could travel within the slave states (94).
By the time he was a free man, married and living in Boston, his reputation was one of eloquence. Many people listened to his speeches in disbelief that he had been a slave. His educated demeanor was the product of an intense desire to learn in spite of slavery. He traded bread for words from the boys in the street (52). He taught himself from readers he found in his master’s home.
Frederick soon learned that the ability to read was a real threat to the white men who enslaved him. The anger his mistress’ husband displayed upon learning of the reading lessons made young Frederick painfully aware of why he needed to learn. His master had said, “If you teach him to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave"(48). Frederick realized, “the white man’s power to enslave the black man...From that moment, I understood the pathway to freedom"(48). Education is still the way to freedom for Black youth. Due to poverty, the schools are woefully inadequate and “No Child Left Behind” does not address that problem. It compounds the problem by punishing the underachievers who are doing so because of their poverty.
Eldridge Cleaver:
Eldridge was born in Arkansas in 1935, moving with his family to Phoenix and then Los Angeles where he hung around with the wrong kids who introduced him to teenage petty crime. He eventually committed more serious crimes that sent him to prison. After he went back to prison, he said, “I took a long look at myself and, for the first time in my life, admitted that I was wrong, that I had gone astray...that is why I started to write. To save myself” (34). Writing gave him an outlet and a place of personal reflection. The writing workshops in prison helped him do something constructive with his experiences. Ironically, it is the incarceration, enslavement, that provides him with books and classes to hone his writing skills. Decades later, inner city Black high school students are still being enslaved by poverty which denies their schools the proper facilities, teachers and supplies that allow learning to occur. “No Child Left Behind” also punishes their schools due to low test scores by the impoverished students. Slavery continues.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB):
NCLB is a 2002 Federal law that seeks to improve adequate yearly progress (AYP) for American K-12 schools. It has been referred to as a civil rights act because it is “legislation meant to provide federal funding to eradicate the stubborn academic achievement gap between middle and upper-class white kids and the rest of American children” (Goldstein). A huge problem is its lack of funding to states to pay for the expensive testing and pay for the necessary remedial teaching. The Federal government contributes only nine cents of every one dollar spent in the schools for NCLB (Time).
School segregation is one reason why NCLB is not working and the achievement gap is widening between white and all minority students, including African-Americans. Segregated schools have never done a good job of educating children (Anderson). The curriculum and teaching staff are usually inadequate. Without good curriculum, the students cannot possibly pass the state tests that are the backbone of NCLB. Funding is tied to the Adequate Yearly Progress and without good scores, the school starts a downward spiral. After five years of underperformance, the state can restructure the school. The students can also transfer out of the school after two years of low scores. Money for teaching has to then be put into providing transportation (Time).
The Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 that “separate facilities are inherently unequal” still has not been completely resolved. African-American students are most often in impoverished schools that don’t have the money to guarantee them a quality free education. The socioeconomic status of the students dictates that they live in lower income neighborhoods where the schools are inadequate. This is a violation of their civil rights because they are supposed to have a free education.
The tests also incorporate reading and language that some students may not be familiar with because they attend a low-performing school. That is a further hindrance to their passing the tests. The tests are also a hindrance to creative learning because teachers feel they must “teach to the test” to gain funding for their school and keep their jobs. It has nothing to do with real learning and everything to do with money. Cheating on state tests has been reported recently (Time). The stakes are very high and the children are tossed aside.
A good place to begin solving the problem, if NCLB is to remain in place, is to encourage integration of schools, with the Federal government paying more money for schools and busing since it is a Federal law. Integration will go a long way in guaranteeing educational equity for all students. The benefits of an integrated education include reductions in racial prejudice and stereotyping, and preparation of students to live in an increasingly multicultural society. Academic achievement will improve for minority students and White students will stay the same.
Another solution would be to redistribute property tax money in an equitable fashion so that all schools would have equal facilities and staff. The sad state of the Oakland, CA school district is a disgrace. There is also an operating school in Indiana (mostly Black) that should be condemned and is within a short distance of a state-of-the-art school where White children attend. The problems exist because of property tax distribution from surrounding neighborhoods. It also exists because of housing segregation by race, which is also related to property taxes.
Racial segregation appears to be the main reason why the test scores are low. Underperforming schools have a higher percentage of minority children. It is a very real problem for districts to attract the best teachers to work in dilapidated schools. Children cannot take pride in a place that is falling apart. Everyone loses, everyone feels that no one cares what goes on within the walls of the school. Both Frederick Douglass and Eldridge Cleaver would be very sad to see the low morale of students who they know have a lot of potential. People helped each of them to become something, to follow their dreams. Our society owes it to our school-age youth to let them know they can also follow their dreams.
Sources:
Anderson, Nick.“School Segregation Is Back With A Vengance.” washingtonpost.com 17 October 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
Cleaver, Eldridge Soul On Ice New York: Dell, 1968, 1999.
Dillon, Sam.“No Child Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap.” Nytimes.com 29 April 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/education/29scores.html
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An AmericanSlave. New York: Penguin, 2005.
Goldstein, Dana.“Segregated Schools Leave Children Behind.”19 September 2007 http://prospect.org/cs/articles
Kahlenberg, Richard D.“No Child Left Behind’s Impotence on the Achievement Gap.”The Century Foundation 21 November 2006
http://www.tcf.org/print.asp?type=NC&pubid=1446
“How To Fix No Child Left Behind.” Time 24 May 2007
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1625192,00.html